Till Death We Part: Beginning to End
by Iname
Summary: Sequel to Till Death We Part' A story of how the sick chases after the man he loves with what little he has left. Rated for all ages.


A-N: Thanks for all the reviews it was inspiring me to write more and this is the outcome. I'm completely out of tears now. This is it, the last and last of 'Till Death We Part' I hope you enjoy it  
Till Death We Part:pt II

Legends: means time gap (this story goes back and forth time)

"I'm sorry..."

Yuki looked away from the grave. He looked up and saw a cinnamon haired man, and it took him twice to blink before he could register who he was. Nakano-san.

The day was soaked with fresh water falling from the sky and it was ironic that everyone at the funeral site felt the same. K came, Suguru too along with the whole band of Nittle Grasper and Seguchi's wife.

They all cried...except for Yuki.

Yuki stayed dazed as the coffin was lowered. His mind remained blank as he felt everyone leaving...

That was when Hiro saw that Yuki remained to where he stood. Not a muscle wrenched as all attention was focused on the ground that had swallowed the novelist's lover. Hiro convinced Tohma that he wanted to talk to Yuki, and now that they were there...it was harder than what it looked like from far away.

"I'm sorry." Hiro repeated and he was. But there wasn't enough Sorrys in the world to make anyone feel better...anyone who knew Shuichi Shindo.  
Yuki glanced at him, stared for a moment then gleamed back to where Shuichi was placed. Reading the words that were inscripted elegantly on the tomb.  
_'Thank you for everything, everyone.  
Thank you to my lover who gave me so much.  
I'll be waiting Eiri, ti'll the day comes._  
Hiro came to deliberate Yuki from the sorrow that burdened his shoulders, but as soon as he followed Yuki's gaze, tears sprung so quickly like flowers in spring.  
"Nakano-san...I'm sorry too." Eiri whispered and walked past Hiro, his eyes glazing in utmost concentration as he tried to find his way out of the cemetary.

For him the funeral sped by like a bullet, passing in a blur...and the next thing Yuki was aware of was opening the door to his apartment, greeted by a strong gust of strawberry scent.

He closed the door as to contain the smell...the smell of his lover whom he wanted all to himself.

Dropping his keys on the ground, he stumbled towards the part of the house where the source was the strongest coming from, to the kitchen. But there was nothing there.

He lit a cigarette. It felt so good to smoke...he had quit three years ago, but now it was something he had to do to get his insane mind back to sanity...then he would cry his heart out with his forehead on the kitchen counter...until a familiar voice would greet him,

"_You don't need a cigarette to imagine me."_ and that was Eiri's cue to close his eyes, knowing that if he opened them, his love's voice and his touch on top of his head would vanish once more into thin air.

The lingering strawberry scent helped him keep Shuichi longer as the boy's hand reached for his cigarette and snuffed it on the tiles.

Eiri took a deep breath to keep the fragrance in him.

"You never even liked my that smell, Eiri," Shuichi teased, "My strawberry shampoo."

Yuki smiled, "I love it more than anything now." blindly he stood and took the unseen child in his arms, wrapping him with his hands like a Christmas gift, "Where are you?" He asked, "Are you lonely?"

The visiting spirit returned the embrace, "I think..." he whispered, "You are more lonely than me..."

Then it came. The pang of regret as those words reminded him of his mistake.

It was the concert. That's where it all began.

Shuichi grasped the mic and stared at the camera. Knowing that Yuki would be watching him at home, he shouted,

"This one is for my husband Eiri Yuki!"

The crowds cheered. And that was when it ended. Without a warning or another word, Shuichi collapsed on stage.

_"Stop it."_ Shuichi murmured in soft anger. His arms tightening around Eiri, "Don't go back there. I don't blame you...there was no mistake-"

But Yuki would not obey. What he needed now was somewhere between Pain and Sorrow. He needed his lover and to the past he went, where his love was still alive and not an illusion.

"HB." The young doctor said, reading from her diagnostics report, "It attacks the heart, the liver and brain at the same time." Yuki can remember the way the young miss looked at them. She knew about their relationship and she was very supportive of it because she was a fan. It pained her to say the words and she knew it would give more torment to the two lovers, "HB cannot be cured. The three parts of the virus work together, should one part be interrupted, the remaining two will attack faster and more severely. And instant kill. The best we can do is sit back and let it work at their slowest speed."

She shifted uncomfortably, "At the current speed, Shuichi Shindo has a year to live, another month at the most."

"Yuki..." Shuichi whispered.

That was the first thing Shuichi had said since they arrived from the hospital. It was somewhere around three in the morning when Yuki opened his eyes, his face still on the tear-streaked phone. He had called and called all hospitals that existed in Japan and none had the cure or treatment for HB. Or rather, it was impossible to cure.

He had opened his eyes directly staring at two large ones. Like the violets in spring, soaked in summer rain.

"That's enough Yuki. No more, just stop this." Shuichi beseeched to his bewildered lover, "There is no cure. Just enjoy of what I've left."

That was when Yuki snapped. He jumped to his feet and ran out the door. he had wanted to yell out his lungs at his lover...but he didn't have the heart knowing that he was dying.

"YUKI!" his lover behind him called.

The name beholder heard a small thump, proof that his small love have collapsed, but on he continued to run out the apartment, taking his car. He ran.

And to the present Yuki began to cry.

"I'm sorry for letting you fall..." he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Stop..."

He felt Shu-chan's whisper of despair turn to a puddle of misery on his shirt.

"It was never your fault...Even if you left, you came back..."

Yuki's face turned blank as paper. That's right...he came back...but not that day. Nor the next or the week following.

It was also raining when Eiri left his lover that night. To be precised, he left the country. He boarded a plane to America.  
Three long weeks dragged by without seeing his lover. Without Shuichi's addictive smile of hope. Until New York.  
Eiri took a threatening step back, staring at Shuichi as if he was a ghost that fell from the sky like the heavy snow.

Yuki Eiri remembered his sweetheart's words,

"Yuki...let's go back. You don't have to be frightened anymore...see?" he stretched out his arms to his side like a savoir welcoming him, "I'm okay that I can't live for long. I mean...It's alright because I've figured it out."

The taller man's eyes stung with brimming tears, continuing to stare at his small lump of a lover. His throat constricted as he continued to stare at the love of his life, the joy of his life. Everything in his life.

"I understand what the reason is for...all of this." His smile became innocent, "This situation has told me...that it's all fine, as long as I have met Yuki. As long as he has made me happy for five years, as long as he stayed with me. As long as I met you."

The ruffle on the tip of Yuki's eyebrows didn't know whether to go up or down, they just contracted. The writer wanted to cry...but his anger erupted, fiercer than a volcano,

"How can you say that!" he shouted, uncaring for his temporary hurt expression, "If this was going to happen, It would have been better if I've never met you in the first place! I **_never_** would have agreed on becoming your lover if you'd leave me so soon!"

Then silence reigned above them, between them...pulling the two apart, a universe away.

Shuichi stared at his beloved with a strange longing in his eyes. The kind that didn't want lust the kind that Yuki expected to see for the rest of his life. Shuichi always gazed at him with adority, but this was the first that his face crumpled in such a delicate way, it almost made him look like a beauty from from the olden times. A fading charm.

"Really Eiri?" he asked, his voice in the right pitch that was all but considered a woman's, "Would it really have been better if you had not met me at all?"

Yuki bit his tongue as punishment for the unmeant words that came out so venomously towards the innocent boy. Like a snake and a by-passer.

Before the man could take back what was said, the pink haired boy neared him with his tiny figure, discharging a loving aura from his body. He reached one arm up to the back of Yuki's head and pulled it down on his shoulder while the other arm rounded the back.

His loving, sorrowful whispers drove the blonde to the edge of sanity as his words reached inside the author's eager eardrums and straight to the heart, coursing through the arteries like blood. Speaking words that were contrary to his.

"For me...I would rather spend five years with you and die than not know you...than not to know satisfaction that you've given me. Than not to be your lover that you treasured most. Do you understand darling?" he kissed the side of his head, "I've been so blessed that you've given me your all...even if it's only for a short time..."

The head rested on his weak-boned shoulder, not wanting to pull away...he had left him for three weeks back to Tokyo and now they were there in America at the foot of the Statue of Liberty...

How did he get to me?

Yuki caught a glimpse of Shuichi's long haired Nakano not far from their spot.

"Let's go home...Neh-Yuki?"

Senses returning, as if whatever tranquilizing effect Shu-chan's words had over him extinguished, his feet stiffened and his arms grew restless as his mind began to work and in a twisted way...it was telling Eiri to pull away.

Without a thought he pushed him away, the sudden movement causing the young man to fall, his feet skidding on the ice as he tried to keep his balance while at the same moment calling for his name.

But they were no longer within arms' reach. One was running.

"Anywhere but here." the elder man whispered, dropping his glasses and continuing on, unable to look back at the source that called for him in complete desperation. However, it was too late, no matter what Shindo said, Yuki could not bring himself to give up so easily. America was a large place with so many hospitals. He'll round up all the physicians if he had to...as long as they gave him a damn cure for his love.

"That's right, I did as I vowed. I searched everywhere for the cure. I slapped away branches that were in my way, I turned every rock upside down, right side up and anyway I thought possible. But I found no medicine and on my search continued for a month and a half." Yuki trailed away until the visiting illusion in the kitchen continued for him,

"Until it seemed that someone had come again to try to stop the madness. For good."

He was exiting his hotel room and when Yuki snapped the card out of the lock, he turned and found himself facing a shorter man with incensed, teal colored eyes. He watched Eiri's body shiver once before it completely froze.

"Seguchi..." he murmured. He looked so unfamiliar at first, and he supposed it was because his casual friendly smile was absent.

Tohma's arms folded over his chest, each hands gripping his elbows.

"Eiri-san, you are killing Mr. Shindo faster than the disease." he said furiously, emphasizing each word with clear, solid significance.

Yuki looked down flustering with guilt, but it wasn't enough to allow him to give up on searching for a treatment. It wasn't enough...and Tohma seemed to know that.

Tohma's hand fumbled quickly inside his jacket coat and he pulled out a black razor phone. Striding towards him, he took his large hands and placed it in his fingers. He was determined to get the lovers back together.

"Dial, your home number. Now." he ordered.

He had never seen Tohma look so angry at anyone, not even at Shuichi and to worsen things, he was angry at him...at Eiri Yuki whom Tohma said he loved most in the world.

The receiver did as he said and waited as the phone rang. The first ring passed and rapidly a familair voice came through, familiar, but not Shuichi's.

"Mika?" Yuki mumbled, a little surprise, What was she doing there?

She was shock for a moment too, "Eiri..?" but her voice turned cold. It was as if she knew that Yuki would call.

She demanded "Where are you? Do you know your poor lover's critical state?" she accused, "You helped him get to this stage."

"Mika...let me talk to Shuichi." Yuki whispered, catching Tohma's painful sigh as he backed a few steps from hs ground.

"Why should I, you bastard."

That was a turn of event. He had never heard Mika-san talk like that. Even though she was clearly older than him, she had always let her younger brother bully her and she's never spoken so harshly towards him.

"What I did..." Yuki said to Shuichi's apparition, "it was the worst thing I've done. It changed Mika's and Tohma's perspective towards you. They used to dislike you...and then they were all of a sudden protecting you...from me."

On the memory continued...

Yuki's head jerked back upon hearing a cough belonging to none other than his husband. Almost he saw himself in their room, watching Shuichi's body tremble so violently on the bed...holding on the edge to keep himself from falling-

He heared Mika rush to the bedside and say to Shuichi with a mother's gentility, "Shu-chan...please rest a bit longer, you've only gotten three hours of sleep."

"B-but I have to go and wait for Yuki again...at the door. So that...so that if Tohma finds him..." his voice became inconsistent.

Mika's voice shifted to the phone, "You're a cold bastard Yuki." and he quickly figured she must have handed the phone to Shuichi for he heard his little brat's continuous sniff as Mika told him to stay on the bed in the condition she would allow him to speak to her brother.

Eiri sent himself a mental image of his Shuichi handling the phone like a newborn baby.

"Yuki?"

It was like the hallelujah for Eiri. His heart weight against the restraint of his arteries and veins when he heard him call his name. Yuki warmed in no ways others can.

"Shuichi..."

But before he continued, Shuichi's voice became composed, as if Eiri was the one dying and the truly sick one was trying to calm him. Yuki had turned into a fierceful storm.

"Eiri...I knew you wouldn't just sit and watch me die..." He said in a small whisper, pausing to couch, "but I...I think you've done enough."

"I could hear your tears and almost see your steamy breath" Yuki whispered to the ghost.

"I want to know very much, where are you?" his voice crackled, "I miss waking up in your arms...I miss being annoying to Yuki because...because he would scold me unlike Mika-san."

The words he received made Yuki even more desperate.

"Shuichi, my love, it's alright, don't be lonely. I'll get your cure home...soon enough okay-" But his altogether soft mumbles were interrupted by a statement that was a thousand times more believe-able than the finding of the cure for HB.

"I think you are more lonely than me."

And those were the words that brought Yuki to his senses. His heart already knew he was lonely from the beginning, just knowing-no-just thinking that he would be left behind by his pink hairdoed lover made him feel desolate through it all. Drove him to the brink of what his heart that have grown so big over the years with Shuichi to the edge of happiness.

He had to give up before his foolishness continued.

Yuki followed Tohma who led him to the airport, all the while talking to Shuichi listening to his lover's continuous babbling as if HB was never inside him.

"I'm on the plane Shuichi..." Yuki whispered wearily, his eyes half closed. He pictured Shuichi nodding like a loose spring,

"Really? Good...cause I've worn all your shirts and it's starting to lose your smell." he gasped. Yuki did not allow him to wear his clothes, "Sorrry Yuki."

But the man didn't mind. There were more things important to him than his replaceable shirts. Such as Shuichi's happiness,

"You'll make it up to me when I get home."

"Oooohhh...Mika taught me how to cook! Now I can only burn through the laddle, not through the pots. Isn't she great?"

Yuki let out a quiet laugh, Mika could not cook well either.

"You're laughing? No fair I wanna see Yuki laugh."

And on Yuki continued to listen to him, even after falling asleep, he still could hear Shuichi's voice rambling on and on about his day and how HB gave him extra advantage 'cause K never points his gun at him that much anymore.'

Then it was silent, which awoke Yuki frighteningly,

"Shu-chan? Shu-"

A sleepy voice whispered, "Yukiii..."

He sighed in relief, "Yes?

"Yukiii...I never got to sing you your song."

A wide smile spread across Eiri's face, he knew exactly what to say, "You dedicated one of your crappy lyrics to me?" those lines alone, Yuki knew, gave Shuichi joy that wasn't known to mankind. The universe that parted them abruptly drew them close.

"Uh-yeah."

You're blushing...I can't wait to see that...Yuki thought.

Eiri felt his lover's visit ending. Clinging unto him as much as he could, he entreated with tears, "Shuichi, please sing to me your song. The one that you never got to sing in front of everyone."

Encased in your loving arms,  
Your oh so palely-colored eyes gazing at me,  
An alarm that's more efficient and pricelessly unique  
I'll wake to you and hand you my heart  
To which I renounce control over to you and you,  
I know, will it to be, whatever you see fit.

And I along with my heart will come running at every command  
So long as you'll tell me, if in silence you must, that you'll love me for all my life  
For all the life that's left here in the world.

Yuki's eyes remained close as Shuichi sang his song. In the end, Shuichi stroke his cheek, asking,

"What will you do now?"

The smell of his lover began to stay stronger than earlier and Yuki replied slowly, so that it was clearly heard, "I guess I'll wake up to nothing...and then I'll die..." and he knew it was true, Shuichi took away half of his heart when the child died...and the rest of what was left, gave up on living.

"Then can I," Shuichi asked, "can I meet you? Can I trace back the time when you and I met eyes for the first time?"

"Mmm..."

Shuichi suddenly pushed him to stand straight, still Eiri's eyes were close, he cupped Yuki's cheeks and softly murmured, "Till Death We Part...it doesn't include us. Open your eyes Eiri dear."

And Yuki opened his eyes, facing once again sparkling violet eyes and Shuichi's uplifting smile. _An illusion no more._

Review Please! Well, I don't know if this is any good. I'm kinda planning on writing an aftermath-and I'm completely starting from scratch. So, please review and tell me if you want more? Pretty Please?


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